Baking soda or bicarbonate is a standard for clean and beauty. Should be done in evening before rest. As with anything, be careful and use common sense and adjust to your needs Used as toothpaste, it will not harm enamel to whiten as with many new 'whitening' pastes containing acids which dissolve your enamel..forever. Mix bsoda with a little water or add to toothpaste and gently brush your teeth. Not abrasive --it totally dissolves out in breads, cakes and cookies! For face skin and otherwheres: with water, use hands to lather up some soft bar soap as Dove, then add teaspn+ bicarb to make a smooth paste. [DO NOT use b/soda alone/or + water only on your skin! It needs something to carry it to be correctly effective.] Wet your skin and then GENTLY and evenly scrub all over --with your fingers-- your moistened skin wih this paste in small circular motions for not more than 10-15+ secs --just count as you go. The paste should gently glide over your skin. Do all area, including neck, decollete, ear lobes, around eyes, eybrow, etc. Rinse with comfortably warm/hot --not cold-- water. Skin should be fresh, clean and supple. This can be repeated. The key is GENTLE. Establish your routine of 1-2/week should be adequate maintenance. Adjust as needed. Do not rub dry. Exfoliating and stimulating circulation, so EXPECT your skin to 'worsen' as it now excretes what was locked in lower levels moving up to surface and out. As the water is absorbed [prune skin] it swells and forces the excretions and other debris to the surface. Skin takes about 6-8+ weeks to renew and replace itself, so work with it and give it time: the b/soda does not 'add' or 'do' anything you did not put there --it rinses away-- and helps release...what other products and blocks accumulated in your skin! The products you use in certain locations and will be released there and not elsewhere. With wetted fingertips, apply your mositurizer or a few drops of glycerin. That is all. CAUTION: moistened and softened, skin will therefore tear easily --DO NOT squeeze or pinch or damage! No abusive handling! The purpose of the cleansing is to disrupt and move out the buildup in the skin. For body skin and those areas able to support a stronger scrub --as your feet-- just add a pinch regular iodized table salt and use a washcloth if desired. Experiment. Done for 3-4+ months and many/most scars and discolorations should fade out. Gentle continued care will bring results, with the basic ingredients of expensive skin cares and scrubs. Of course, no sun exposure!

Oh HELL NOO...I'm going to try and put into words the horrendous effects this product had on my skin and it's hard for me to comprehend the good reviews, maybe others have more resilient skin than I do.

About a year-and-a-half ago, my skin was at its worst: enlarged pores, blemishes throughout, and terrible cystic acne concentrated on my jawline/chin area. I decided to go the natural route although topicals have always been the solution for my skin type. I washed my face then applied this on my moistened skin and rubbed in gentle, circular motions once per week with disastrous results. Every time I used Baking Soda, a breakout seemed to follow, it clogged my pores beyond belief, and turned my sensitive skin beet red and itchy.

The result was flaky, inflamed skin with more acne and I attempted to use BS as a spot-mask for a last ditch effort, and I didn't notice any improvement in the tone of my skin. Ladies and gents, if you suffer from sensitive, acne-prone skin please proceed with caution before trying this! Imo it's the equivelent of rubbing sandpaper across your face--abrasive, harsh, and damaging. Look elsewhere! If 0 stars were an option, this would garner that rating as there's nothing positive I can say even though I hate writing poor reviews. SIGH..

I have very sensitive skin and I get occasional breakouts, but I tend to get blackheads that I can never seem to get rid of. I used baking soda and Dickinson's witch hazel and mix them together until a paste forms and then I put it on in the shower for about 3 minutes and then use circular motions to exfoliate but being very gentle at the same time! My skin wasn't dry after or anything and later that night when I took my makeup off my skin felt even better! However the next morning I did it again and it burnt my skin. My skin was stinging and it looked like I was sunburnt everywhere else but my eyes! So I just drank lots of water and didn't mess with my skin and the redness went away. Thank gosh! I would definitely only use this once-twice a week but not back to back!

I used this as a facial and body exfoliator durring an entire summer. I was amazed by all the positive reviews posted on MUA and loved the idea of using a natural household product as an exfoliator. It took me an entire summer to figure out why I was getting huge, painful systic acne on my chin and on my back? After eliminating all possible factors I realized that it was BAKING SODA that was ravaging my skin. Stoped using it and my skin cleared out in a few months. Took forever for the scar marks to fade. Wow! Just a note to everyone: "natural" does't always equate "beneficial" A word of caution to everyone.

I'm African American with extremely oily, extremely sensitive and acne prone skin. Every exfoliant that I've ever tried, chemical and natural, breaks me out. I decided to try baking soda as my last effort in exfoliating my skin. I made it into a paste with water and applied, and immediately my face felt like it was on fire. I made it about 60 seconds seconds and then rinsed. The whole rinsing process was even painful. I'm not even sure if this product will work for me or not because I can't take the burning. Five minutes after rinsing and my face is still burning. I guess exfoliating of any kind is just not for me. I'll just stick to my Shea Moisture black soap and use baking soda for household cleaning.

So used only once, did not notice any remarkable results. Put it as mask, and the rubbed to exfoliate...

no benefit to skin appearance, does not help for cleaning blackheads, but maybe one could use instead of normal skin cleansing milk, it does remove the oil (though I do not have particularly oily skin)

skin on a small acne got broken

seems it does not make anything worse either

I guess I still have some better products that I prefer over this, like dennis gross spot treatment

EDIT: I used it twice more and downgrade it further. So some blackheads are easier to squish out, but the skin is so damaged from the backing soda that it gets instantly damaged while trying to squeeze a blackhead. Also caused some new acne including on my nose, and I almost never get them on my nose.

Overall: While it does provide so cleansing, is too harsh and damaging for my sensitive skin. SKIN APPEARANCE DETERIORATES significantly.

I have been reading the posts here and felt the need to add my two cents. This is one of the most amazing, inexpensive means of keeping my skin blemish and dark spot free. I use baking soda as a facial cleanser daily. I have tried so many other products (and I do mean a lot, including retin A) and none were as effective as the baking soda. I have oily/combination skin and the baking soda removes at least 90% or more of the oil from my skin.

A great byproduct was the elimination of dark spots. If I get a blemish, which is so rare now, the baking soda eliminates the resulting dark spot, almost immediately. I allow the paste to dry and then rinse it off while showering. I keep the baking soda paste in a cute glass jar, and a box of baking soda nearby, so I can replenish my jar.

Moisturizing immediately after rinsing is a must. I use two or three drops of cosmetic grade Argan oil, Aveeno CLEAN COMPLEXION moisturizer and a sunblock. Even my husband commented on my beautiful skin. While battling the flu, I didn't follow my baking soda regime and the breakouts returned almost immediately. I, like a few other users, combine baking soda with my toothpaste. I love baking soda!

I sensitive skin, but oiler in the t-zone and lots of blackheads and conjested skin...if you mix baking soda with a little bit of water so that it is a paste texture and use as an exfoliator its amazing, your blackheads literally go away!

Tried my first home remedy skin treatment this week! A total win. I had a really mean blemish that wasn't going away with my spot treatment stuff, so I made a baking soda mask with some water, wore it for 15 mins, and it dried up over night. I did not experience the intense burning as others have noted, just some tingling. As others have mentioned, be sure to slap lotion on right after since it definitely dried out my entire face. If you have dry skin, this is not for you - my skin is still a bit dry two days later.